


The Universe Shines in Multicolor

by linatrinch



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Branding, Final Fantasy XIII AU, M/M, Slow Burn, l'Cie AU, slightly canon divergent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 11:03:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7755184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linatrinch/pseuds/linatrinch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three weeks before the fated mission to Jakku, a dormant fal'Cie awoke long enough to bring together two sides of a war spanning generations. Poe and Finn, now unsuspecting servants of Anima, must find each other and complete their task before time runs out.</p><p>Final Fantasy XIII AU. No prior canon knowledge should be needed to understand the fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Universe Shines in Multicolor

**Author's Note:**

> Like it says in the summary, if you don't know anything about Final Fantasy XIII or anything about the whole branding thing that some of the new FF games have going on, don't worry. I'm still going to try to explain it as best I can through the story. For everyone's sake, l'Cie is pronounced luh-see. But I'll get back to more of that later. I hope you guys like the opening chapter. More tags will be added soon.

Three standard weeks before the Jakku mission, before Lor San Tekka, before the Finalizer, before-

Three standard weeks before the Jakku mission, Poe bounded out of his X-Wing to smack right into D'Qar's tarmac nearly face first. One hand scrambled at the ladder, catching him before anyone could notice. Every breath vibrated through his grit teeth, white knuckling the ladder, flexing his fingers. His eyes scanned the base to find all on his mission were down and accounted for – as if he didn't know that already, but his mind was so confused that he had to quadruple check. He took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his nerves before having to directly face anyone, but the air was much crisper than he anticipated at first, feeling more like a shock to the stomach, and what was left of the rations he had more than twelve hours ago threatened to resurface. The only thing that kept everything together on the hyperspace flight back was the need to not show his nerves to BB-8.

Now the only thing keeping him together was that same need for the tech running towards him followed closely be Statura and Kalonia. With the hand that wasn't gripping the ladder for dear life, he pulled the helmet off and held it against his leg, feeling it shake beside his thigh.

The thing that made him such a great pilot and commander was his response time to a situation. He was very good at handling what needed to be handled, then calmly bursting into a panic afterwards. And right now he was kind of freaking out.

The tech (Sam? José? He didn't even know.) patted him on the arm and took the helmet, moving around him and towards the ship to help lower BB-8. Poe was kind of thankful that he didn't draw attention to whatever state he obviously had to be in but he quickly realized that there was a reason for that.

“Commander,” Statura slowed to a walk then a stop a little ways from him, looking professional but a little worried. “You usually send your report in the hyperspace lane.”

“Got caught up,” he heard himself say. “Black One took some hits. Had to focus on getting back.” Not entirely a lie.

But Kalonia, damn doctors, walked right up to him. “Are you all right? If you're injured and didn't report it, this will be the third time, Poe.”

“I'm not injured,” he answered, jerking away from her hand which only made the whole planet spin. “I'm fine.”

“You're not fine,” she argued back, as usual. “You're paler than your droid, Dameron, and you're acting strange. I want you to head to-”

“I'm _fine!_ ” He didn't mean to snap at her but- Well- It got the job done. He never barked back. Kalonia's shock and wide eyes was a testament to that. Poe took the second of her pause to continue a little more calmly. “I need to put in my report before anything else.”

“Good,” Statura nodded, no less confused or taken aback than the doctor. “I can assure you that Intelligence would love to see it. You were radio silent for nearly twenty-eight minutes out-”

“Not-” Poe turned towards the Admiral, paused for the world to stop spinning again, swallowed hard twice. “Not you. Not to-” He looked around the tarmac, knowing he wouldn't see her. “I need to speak to the General.”

Statura blinked at him, more than obviously confused. “After the skirmish in that asteroid field, she's in talks with Command and members of the Republic. The General won't be done for hours.” He explained this as if speaking to a child, and the sentiment wasn't lost on Poe. These are things he should already know. More than that, he was asking for something that shouldn't be asked for. No one reported to the General directly unless the General wanted you to.

But the skin tight across his chest and torso felt like it was boiling, blistering over an expanse of wild flames, engulfing him, chocking him- His hands shook with the need to claw out his breastbone and get away from the hot blood pumping through him.

He took another shuddering breath, prepared a little more for the crisp air this time. “I will make my report to General Organa and _only_ to General Organa, Admiral. I'm prepared to disobey command if it comes to that.”

BB-8 made a solemn sound beside his leg, having apparently managed out of the X-Wing at some point. This didn't change the way the other two took a quick glance to each other.

For a brief moment, Poe was sure that Statura was about to challenge him on that remark, but decided to acquit the issue for some reason. The Admiral merely nodded. “She'll call for you when she's available. I'll let her know.”

He glanced a knowing look to Kalonia that she didn't return before turning and leaving. The doctor still stood stubborn and resolute. “At least let me look at your vitals, Poe,” she asked of him, quieter and calmer now. “You look like death. Please.”

BB-8 whistled up at him. _< <Yes, please. At least while we wait.>>_

Poe didn't even glance down to him but he did consider the idea for one fleeting moment. If nothing else, she could give him something to calm his stomach. But- But- He let go of the ladder to pull his collar tight across his neck. “I'm fine,” he said again, pushing pass her and trying to get to the base without falling over.

* * *

Someone – was it Kaydel? – had told him to wait for the General in her office about ten minutes after he collapsed against the wall in a moderately abandoned hallway. It was half because he couldn't make it to his bunk, and half because he didn't want to make it to his bunk. He needed a fucking shower at the very least, but-

He had been waiting, thumbs pressed against his eyelids, for about fifteen minutes before General Organa walked in and closed the door behind her. He looked up, blinking spots out of his vision until he could find her frown. “I don't know whether to be angry or worried, Commander,” she told him with a stern face and soft voice, walking around the desk to take her seat. “This isn't like you. What's going on?”

“I thought you would be a few more hours,” he said dumbly, like his mind just couldn't catch up.

“I can hardly continue a meeting when I don't even know what we're talking about,” she answered, leaning back in a slightly more comfortable chair than his own. “I've gotten reports from Wexley, Pava, and Kun, which all amount to what we already know. You were the only one on the ground. You were the one that called the mission off with little explanation. Your team was handling the First Order squadrons that had arrived, but you pulled back anyway.”

“There was nothing there, General.” His voice wavered more than he would have liked. “It was a red herring for both us and the First Order. They thought the signal going out was a distress beacon for their side, not ours. That's why they were so eager to get there first.”

“Then what was the distress signal?”

“It wasn't a-” He stopped, rubbed away the sweat from his forehead.

Leia leaned forward again. “The Republic lost a pilot out there three days ago. You think this signal was a coincidence instead of a trap?”

“The First Order lost a TIE Fighter and a cruiser of Stormtroopers around the same time in the same area.”

She stared at him, confused and waiting. “How do you know that?”

How did he know that? How did-? “It wasn't a distress signal.”

“Then what _was_ it?”

Poe doubled over and scrubbed at his eyes as hard as he could. When he was nineteen, back on Yavin 4, he and a group of buddies paraded halfway around the moon, drinking through every town and bedding anyone that was willing. Most of it ended up being a blur, but he distinctly remembered waking up naked in a pasture with a some bovine type thing licking his face. When he got back home, his dad nearly clocked him for being gone four days without any word. Four days of heavy drinking and dancing and partying with no sleep had left him feeling pretty damn dead. He felt so much worse right now.

“I, uh-” Poe ran a hand over his face, looking up to his General, the legend. He would love to trust her with this, but she needed to know regardless of how she ended up handling him. But everyone else didn't need to know. His father didn't need to know. He braced his arms against her desk. “I was on the ground and I-” _Fuck._ Poe rubbed his forehead against his sleeve, trying to figure out what to say, where to start, which memory to revisit first.

Leia sat next to him, nearly startling him. He hadn't noticed her even get up. “Poe,” she began far more gently this time, a warm hand going to his shoulder, “it's all right.” His stomach settled, air came easier to him- Her use of the force. It had to be. “Just start at the beginning. Take your time.”

He took a couple of deep breaths, blinking hard and thinking back. Then the words seemed to just start pouring out of him. “BB-8 scanned the asteroid where the signal was coming from, because we couldn't find any signs on the surface. He discovered it was hollow and had a thin atmosphere, so I gave the order to make a perimeter around the area while I investigated on foot. I figured no matter how fast I was, the Order would catch up before I could collect the source, so better me than them, obviously. But they found us quicker than I thought. I saw them jump out of hyperspace by the time I found an entrance. I ran for maybe a mile or more inside, I don't know. Kept in contact with Snap and Jess, so I knew I had a little time before the Order clued in that someone was on the ground. But as soon as the cave opened up, I was ambushed. A platoon of stormtroopers had been dropped in another location so they could recover what _they_ thought was their distress beacon.”

Poe took another breath here, closing his eyes, trying to think back. It was harder than he thought it would be. Everything just seemed like a Before and After now. “Um-... Shit, I can't-”

“Take your time,” Leia said again, no less impatient nor stern with him for the high level of informality going on here. Not that he cared about formality right now.

The pilot shook his head, eyes still closed. “I-... One of them might have hit me, I don't know. There was two of them. One wouldn't- Slip wouldn't _shut up_.”

“Slip?”

“The other called him Slip,” Poe suddenly remembered, “and Slip called the other Eighty-Seven.” Leia didn't say anything, so he tried to keep thinking. “We were- There was a cliff. A cliff inside of the asteroid. Slip said that their signal was coming from below us. I tried to tell them it was _our_ distress signal, I don't know why, but they didn't believe me anyway. They were going to kill me. I tried to kill them but I was too slow. Eighty-Seven had a clear shot but he hesitated. Slip distracted him.”

He could still see it. Pieces of it. The blue glow. The gray light. The sound like thunder tearing down his lungs- “Poe.” He blinked back to the present, Leia gripping tight on his shoulder. “How did he distract him?”

“He took his helmet off,” Poe said, staring at a chip in the corner of her desk. “Red head, pale, bright green eyes- Young. So young. Younger than Eighty-Seven. Younger than our own recruits. He- He was looking down at the light.”

“What light?”

“The glowing. The light.” Poe paused on his insistence, trying to think a little clearer. “There was a light coming from beneath us. Eighty-Seven nearly had a stroke when he saw Slip take his helmet off. But Slip was talking. He was- He was talking about the light. How they would be okay. How he figured everything out. I thought he was nuts. We both thought he was nuts. But he- He, uh-” _Fuck, c'mon._ “He started saying how he knew what he had to do and that it was going to fix everything. How when it was over there wouldn't be any First Order or Stormtroopers or war and everyone would be free. And Eighty-Seven saw it first.”

_Slip, what the fuck is that on your neck?_

“Saw what first?”

Poe put a hand against the right side of his neck, wondering how the hell the other man had put up with that burn on such a sensitive area. Finally, he looked to Leia. “He was branded,” he told her. “He was a l'Cie. I- It started glowing – like a dull gray – and there was a weird- I don't know. It was like... _blooming_ or something. I don't know. I don't know what I saw. I didn't even know shit like that really existed, but it was glowing- I panicked, tried to get Eighty-Seven's blaster away from him to kill Slip, but he fought back, and a shot fired, and I got the blaster away from him, but Slip was on the cliff's edge, and neither of us knew what to do. Eighty-Seven took his helmet off, tried to talk to him, tried to make him look at him, _completely_ ignoring me. I could have killed them both right there, but I didn't- I couldn't- I was scared the brand would fight back if I provoked it at that point. I heard stories-” He tried to take another breath, tried to center himself a little bit. “But I- I let Eighty-Seven try, but Slip kept saying that when he woke up there wouldn't be a First Order anymore, that they'd both be free, and before I knew it he just-”

He didn't know how to fucking describe it. He didn't know how to say anything at this point. How the hell do you try to explain something like that? Poe waved his arms, showing something like an explosion coming out of his ribs. “He just- I never- I didn't think it was real. I didn't think-”

“He turned to crystal,” Leia finished for him, still holding his shoulder but leaning back in surprise at the story she had heard so far. “He completed his Focus... What _was_ his Focus, Poe?”

She asked as if she had already guessed. Poe swallowed. “To get us there. Me and Finn. To get us there.”

“Finn?”

“Eighty-Seven. He-” Fuck, he just wanted to shut down. He couldn't fucking do this.

“Poe,” the General shook him again, a little more sternly this time, “what happened? After Slip entered crystal stasis, what happened?”

He took a breath. “The _light_.” How did he explain this? How did he begin? “It wasn't a beacon. It was energy. Just pure energy being transformed into a signal, whether on purpose or an accident, I don't know. It- That light, it just shot out of the ground. I thought the whole asteroid was imploding, and then we were falling and it was just- Just _light_. But I could see him. I could _see_ Anima.”

“Anima?”

“And it was so bright, and then it was pitch black. I couldn't see anything. I was floating. Finn and I- We didn't know what the hell to- Slip was _dead_ , and this _thing_ -”

“Poe, stop.” She shook him hard, bringing him back one more time, but he couldn't stand to look at her. “What do you mean you saw Anima? _The_ Anima? The fal'Cie? What happened?” She knew what happened. He finally looked over to her, seeing concern and frustration and borderline anger. “Poe, _tell me_ what happened. That's an order, Commander.”

But he didn't know what happened. He was floating, then he was on the ground. Finn was there.

Poe blinked hard again, trying to stay in one moment. After a shaking breath, he brushed Leia's hand away, unzipping the top of his flight suit and pulling the collar of his shirt low enough to see the top and middle of his brand. It was still black and gray, a mash of lines about as big as his fist woven together in a tight rectangle, each end coming up blunt instead of pointed with arrows like in the old stories.

He didn't know the specifics – didn't even know any of this existed until about four hours ago – but he could gather enough information for his own fate. He was now branded as a servant to the God-like fal'Cie, Anima, to complete a Focus that he only hazily saw glimpses of through a wild vision. If his quest was a success, he would be encased in crystal like Slip for either eternity or, if the stories were to be believed, to awaken possibly thousands if not millions of years later, effectively having a near immortal life. If his quest was a failure, he would forget himself, everything that would be him would cease to exist, and he'd turn into an unstoppable monster that would kill far too many before someone could end him. Either way- Well, either way, it wasn't good.

A slow death. An extremely slow and confusing, frustrating death.

Leia let out a slow breath, gripping on to his elbow now and not looking away from the brand. “What is your Focus?” she asked calmly with her political voice that left no room for a truly good option.

But Poe didn't know where to begin regardless. “I don't know,” he said, voice shaking again. “It was... a lot. I saw a planet imploding, and lightsabers – a blue and red one – fighting in the dark. I saw... an island. A man with a beard and robes and a prosthetic hand. I saw myself... being tortured... and Finn- Finn was dying, and he wore my jacket. And I saw a- a girl, no older than Slip. I saw people in black, in the rain, surrounded by bodies. I saw Coruscant. I saw Endor. I saw an entire system disappear... And I- I don't know what I saw. I don't know. So many were being killed. I don't know if-” If he was supposed to save them or kill them.

“They aren't clear at first,” Leia shushed him, rubbing a hand up and down his arm. “We'll find the answer, Poe. But the man you saw, the one in robes. That sounds an awful lot like my brother.”

“Luke?” Was that his focus? Find Luke Skywalker? He was already trying to do that.

She nodded, “Yes, but I don't think he's the answer either. Your brand is still in the first stage. We have time. We'll figure it out.”

He could have honestly dropped to his knees and started sobbing right there. Most people saw the branding as a disease and the l'Cie as the carriers. Most people would have done the merciful thing and killed him. Poe had almost done just that himself. _“Thank you.”_

“You have to tell Kes,” she replied, making all relief leave just as quickly, “but we'll keep this between ourselves for now. If you want to tell someone else, feel free, but I'll keep your secret.”

“Thank you,” he said again with a lot less enthusiasm.

Leia frowned at him, clearly thinking. “What about the Stormtrooper, Eighty-Seven?”

“Finn,” he corrected, as if he hadn't been calling him a different name the whole time. But Eighty-Seven was the Before. Finn was the After. “He was branded, too. The same Focus. He bought me time to get away but wouldn't come with me. Said it was too much of a risk. Said that if one of us could complete it, then maybe-...” He sighed, a sound dragging out of his lungs and right through his soul, right through his brand.

“Go sleep, Poe,” she told him. “You're getting at least three days down time, but you need to rest and reset after what happened. We'll come back to this with clearer heads and find out what to do, okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed with a broken voice yet somehow felt so much better than he had before. Whether it was the Force calming him down or talking about the problem, he didn't much care anymore. “Yeah, okay.”

Poe stood to leave, but Leia stopped him, zipping up his flight suit to the neck again, then patted him on the back and sent him on his way.

**Author's Note:**

> I finally begin a new fic. This one kind of hit me a few days ago, and I decided to explore it after some thought. I still have prompts and other stuff I want to do, plus another multi-chap fic I would really love to jump on, but we'll see if I have time for all of that. lol
> 
> We're going to get way more into what it means to be branded, Finn's side of things, flashbacks to the encounter with Anima, etc. For people who know about all of this, yes, I can't wait to get to the Eidolins either. Below is an image of the brand that Poe and Finn have now. They're still in stage one. These will be explained better later, too.  
>    
> 
> 
> So what do you guys think of the first chapter? I'd especially love to hear from those who don't have a clue what the Final Fantasy stuff is about. Am I jumping the gun too much on you? What are you confused about right now? Etc. etc. Thanks for reading, folks!


End file.
